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Obama: Republicans Made Same-Sex Marriage a Reality

In a recent interview with the New Yorker, Obama talked about his judicial legacy, especially as it concerns same-sex marriage. During his administration, a marked shift has occurred in the political make up of the federal circuit courts. He has appointed two hundred and eighty federal judges. When he took office in 2008, ten of thirteen circuit courts were controlled by Republicans. Now, only four have a Republican majority.

And that Republican majority doesn’t mean as much now either, according to Obama. The victorious march of same-sex marriage testifies to this:

“The bulk of my nominees, twenty years ago or even ten years ago, would have been considered very much centrists, well within the mainstream of American jurisprudence, not particularly fire-breathing or ideologically driven,” Obama went on. “So the fact that now Democratic appointees and Republican appointees tend to vote differently on issues really has more to do with the shift in the Republican Party and in the nature of Republican-appointed jurists. … Democrats haven’t moved from where they were.”

Perhaps it is difficult to understand just how important this is. What Obama said, in simpler terms, is this: if same-sex marriage and socialized healthcare are being upheld by federal courts, it’s not that Democrats have changed their position—it’s that Republicans have. Democrats have not compromised. Republicans have.

And this should be a warning to all the “incrementalist” Republican voters who think we can ratchet ourselves into a conservative revolution. We can’t. Because compromise always trends down. The Republican party has continually offered us candidates who trend closer and closer to center. The Democrat party has consistently offered more radically leftist candidates. The country isn’t moving to the center. The country is moving markedly to the left. And according to Obama, Republicans are primarily to blame for this shift.

Democrats haven’t changed. Republicans have. And you and I are the losers. Because we are so concerned with voting for the “not-a-Democrat” candidate, that we have failed to uphold our political principles without compromise. If we have lost this country to leftists, we have only ourselves to blame.